In the case in which a detection of an extremely fine substance is carried out, a wide variety of specimen material detection device has been used for enabling an inspection of such a substance by putting a physical phenomenon of a substance to practical use from the past.
As one of such specimen material detection devices, there can be mentioned for instance an SPR device in which a phenomenon for obtaining a high optical output by a resonance of an electron and a light in a minute region of a nanometer level or the like (a surface plasmon resonance (SPR: Surface Plasmon Resonance) phenomenon) is put to practical use and an extremely fine analyte in a biological body is detected for instance.
As one of such specimen material detection devices, there also can be mentioned for instance an SPFS device in which the analyte detection can be carried out with a higher degree of accuracy as compared with the SPR device based on a principle of a surface plasmon excitation enhanced fluorescence spectroscopy (SPFS) for putting a surface plasmon resonance phenomenon to practical use.
For the surface plasmon excitation enhanced fluorescence spectroscopy (SPFS), under the condition of the attenuated total reflectance (ATR) of an excitation light such as a laser light that has been applied from the light source on a surface of a metallic thin film, by generating a surface plasmon light (a crude density wave) on a surface of a metallic thin film, a photon amount that is included in an excitation light that has been applied from the light source is increased by several ten times to several hundred times to obtain an electric field enhancement effect of a surface plasmon light.
By the electric field enhancement effect, a fluorescence substance that has been coupled (labeled) with an analyte that has been captured near a surface of a metallic thin film is excited in an efficient manner. By observing the fluorescence, an analyte of an infinitesimal quantity and/or an extremely low concentration is detected in the above method.
For such a specimen material detection device such as an SPR device and an SPFS device, a specimen material solution that contains an analyte (antigen) that is a detection target is prepared in advance, the specimen material solution is sent to a fine flow passage, and an analyte (antigen) is captured with a ligand (antibody) that is fixed to a detection region (a reaction field) that is disposed in the fine flow passage.
For such a specimen material detection device, a solution sending of a ligand solution, a specimen material solution, and a cleaning solution is carried out in a fine flow passage by ordinary.
In this case, there can be mentioned for instance a specimen material detection device that is called a circulation type in which a specimen material solution is circulated and passes through a detection region in a repetitive manner and a system that is called a reciprocation type in which a specimen material solution is reciprocated and passes through a detection region in a repetitive manner in addition to a system that is called a one pass type in which a specimen material solution passes through a detection region only one time.
For instance, the Patent Literature 1 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2006-90985) discloses a specimen material detection device that is called a reciprocation type as described above.
More specifically, the measurement device that is disclosed in the Patent Literature 1 is provided with a first sending and discharge means such as a pipette capable of performing a discharge of an analyte solution to and the suction of an analyte solution from a flow passage. In the description of the Patent Literature 1, by sending an analyte solution to a sensor face by the discharge and then carrying out a reverse flow by a suction of the analyte solution by using the first sending and discharge means, an analyte solution is reciprocated on a sensor face at least once, and the analyte solution is sent to the sensor face again after that.